ANC in bid to block new City of Cape Town logo

THE Western Cape African National Congress (ANC) has filed a high court application to have the process by which the City of Cape Town selected a new logo declared invalid.

On Friday, ANC city councillor Xolani Sotashe said the papers had been filed on the same day and the crux of the matter was that no public participation process was used to the select and start implementing the new logo.

Furthermore, he said, it would cost the city far more than the R370,000 it cost to develop and design the logo.

“The previous logo took eight years to implement. So it will take just as long to implement this new logo. We believe that the issue of the logo is a waster of money and that the public were not consulted about it,” he said.

The city’s council approved the new logo at a meeting on February 26.

The logo is part of the city’s integrated development plan.

During that meeting, the ANC councillors commented that the design required a forensic investigation to examine the relationship between the ruling Democratic Alliance (DA) and the company that designed it.

The logo and corporate identity was designed as a joint venture between advertising and communications agency King James and Yellowwood Future Architects, a subsidiary of advertising agency Hunt Lascaris.

The logo was approved at the meeting with 113 DA councillors voting for it, while 75 councillors from the ANC, African Christian Democratic Party and other smaller parties voted against it.

“I have spoken to designers and they say it should cost between R50,000 and R70,000 to design a logo like that. Yet it cost the city more than R300,000,” Mr Sotashe said.

A letter from the city’s legal representatives to the ANC said speaker of the city council Dirk Smit had obtained independent legal advice that stated no public participation was required concerning the new logo.